Email 11.28.11

Familia,

This one will probably be a little short.

I am very hard to hear of the passing of Grandma Rudd. It really hit me hard. I read that email this morning and was somewhat saddened by the news of her passing but I think the only reason it was is because it is common I think. But, I am very happy for her. She finally gets to be with her Eternal Companion. No more struggling, no more pain. All for her and her eternal salvation. Good news. I was bummed because I wanted to talk Rapid City with her. But, I am super excited. If there is anything I can do for the funeral let me know. You can just call the mission office whenever. We are always around. Sister Hawkes will let me know. But yeah.

My knee is swelling up pretty well. But its fine. It will just take some time for it to be completely healed up. Taking it easy and wearing a knee brace constantly. If it does have to do something with surgery I am looking for a really good brace to due me til I get home. So, we will see. But as of right now, totally fine. No big deal. :) Dont worry!!!!!! Please dont worry!!!!!

Good Ole Rudd Thanksgiving!! :)

So much good things happening in Rapid City. Elder Rudd & Elder Pape are taking this city down!!!!!! We have three on date!

-Denise Rafnson! Super excited! Loving the gospel so much. So excited for this saturday. She is going to do so well. Super solid!

-Kassi Blue- December 17th. She told her parents last night and it did not go well!! Her mom freaked and was like what the!!! So her mom wants her to wait a month and her mom wants to learn for herself. So today I got a text from the Referral center at the MTC and it was her mom!!!! So her mom asked for a book of mormon but said please do not contact me. So we have a plan to have all the members involved in Kassis conversion write their testimonies and we are going to put them in a book of mormon. But just not any book of mormon. My momma's book of mormon with her testimony inside!! Super excited!!!

Cheany Whalin- Trying to help her quit smoking. SHe has been taught for a while but no luck yet.

Also, Gillette called me today and Kim Crowder and her girls are getting baptized on saturday too so me and Elder Pape will load up and go to that baptism. Kim wants me to baptize her so I am super excited. It is going to be such a baptizing day because we will load up and go back to baptize denise!! Super cool!!

I love this gospel.

I am looking forward to getting the GPS info.

I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Michael Corey Rudd

Assistant to the President

South Dakota Rapid City Mission

Email 11.21.11

Familia,

Its another crazy day in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission as always but the good news is that it is pday! Gotta love it

Right now we are hanging out at the mission home. We have to go pick up Presidents family at the airport in a couple hours and President is on his way to casper. So, we get to do it. We have so much fun!

I got numbers done pretty early last night I was pretty impressed. I was really happy. Got done about ten o' clock. So it was really good.

I am going to tell you about some people. It is always so hard for me to explain all of these people, who they are and how they are doing.

Djaye and Joe. Djaye is a recent convert. She is 19 super super cool. Just an awesome girl. Joe is 22 return missionary and going to the South Dakota School of Mines (They specialize in enginering) he went on his mission to Michigan. I met Joe like a year ago at my first Zone Leader Council. They met and now they are getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 20th. Super Excited for them. Then they will come back and have a reception here in Rapid. (joe is from utah too) But it is super super cool. Djaye has such a solid testimony too. She is just awesome. They want to hide us and take us to Salt Lake with them for the Sealing. We had a plan that we would go on "exchanges in casper" and just keep going. But oh well. Super cool though!

Siobahn- She is doing well still struggling with Priesthood Authority with her. She is definitley socially converted right now for sure. She loves the church so much. But we are trying to work with her on Spiritual Conversion. We went to her 9 year old daughters basketball game. Had a blast and she did not care one bit that everyone was staring at her because she was with us. She introduced us to her parents and everything so things are going well but we hit a road block!

Ron & Wendy- We hit a road block with them as well. Cant quite get to meet with them or get them to church. Wendy is going to cut our hair today so that will be way good. We are excited. I am defintely going to get her daughters address and number for sure. I would really like whitney to go see them. I want her daughter to write her testimony in a book of mormon then send it to me. Then we can double team this effort and get them in the water :)

Kassi Blue- Doing awesome! Came to church. Loved it! Met a ton of people. We had her over at the McCormicks house (2nd Counselor) had like 25 people over had dinner and just partied! (If it sounds like all I do is party its true, I love rapid) But we got her introduced to so many and we ended with a testimony circle. Everyone shared their testimony. SO SWEET! She was crying, we were crying, everyone was crying. Djaye is like now her best friend. She is so done. in the water by the end of december for sure. :)

Denise- Oh man, she is awesome. She is doing wonderful. She has had alot of temptations to drink but she says no way, I'm getting baptized! She is so awesome. So excited! We meet with her like twice a week and have the members working on her hardcore. Baptized in two weeks! December 3rd!!!

The Mission had a good week. Just good. We had 6 baptisms. But we invited 83 people to be baptized and ALL TIME HIGH. Super good. We are starting to Understand our purpose as missionaries for sure. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in jesus christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. So the more we invite the more we understand. We are to be exactly as the savior taught. The savior would not wait until the 83rd lesson to invite them. The very first lesson he would invite them to follow him and be baptized. So the more we do that the more we become the saviors missionaries and represent him. It has been really interesting to see the mission numbers every week and to see how each zone is doing and each individual missionary is doing. I have never felt so much stress but, I have more love now for all the missionaries.

Sounds like Thanksgiving will be a blast. We picked up another dinner on Thanksgiving too. HOLY BUCKETS! I miss the Rudd thanksgiving it was always so much fun. I enjoy it.

Mom, that is always the hardest thing for me, looking back and looking at everything my savior has done for me and knowing that there is no way that I can fully repay him the only thing that I can do is to serve him. It shows me how unselfish he is. He wants nothing in return all he wants is use to come live with him and our father in heaven for ever. He has shown us the way. For those of you who are not following the savior. DO IT NOW. On my mission I have had no patience for those who are putting themselves in this whole Get up and go!!! Follow him!! Go to church! Read your scriptures! Pray!! The things are not hard. WE MAKE THEM HARD! If we are not doing them of course our testimony will fall. By small and simple things great things shall come to pass. That is the same for satan too. By small and simple things we FORGET to do. Satan has us by a tight grip. Do the small and simple things. The lord is not asking us to move mountains. He is asking us to be better today than yesterday. please wake up and get back on board!

I havent had a soapbox for a while that felt good! :)

I still have the gps.

I love you very much

Love

Elder Michael Corey Rudd

Assistant to the President

South Dakota Rapid City Mission

Email 11.18.11

Hello!

Sorry it took me so long to write the email this week! It was a crazy hectic week. We have been all over the place. We had to drive down to my old stomping grounds... Casper, Wyoming! Oh man it was so good to be back the only thing that was a major bummer was it was super windy and super cold. Just how Casper always is. So its super crazy! So yeah, I have made so many connections this week! Frank Thomas- Totally knows Grandpa Rudd so we are going to lunch this week and he is going to tell me all about grandpa when they were in the Air Force together. I started to cry when he said he knows Melvin Rudd. It was super super cool! So, Dad, I dont know if you have ever heard of Frank Thomas or know him. I can kind of remember Grandma saying something about Frank Thomas but maybe I am crazy. But It is super cool. I wanted to get a copy of Grandpa's life history too if I could. Please! Brad Porter- Totally knows Kymber's family and all that jazz. That is way cool that she called you too mom. His wives mom knows Kirk & Sharon too. Her name is Karol something. Sister Porter lived in Kirk and Sharon's ward. I am sure that they know them so give Kirk and Sharon a call too. Super Cool! But HOLY BUCKETS! I love Rapid City super much! The Exchange in Casper was super good. We took off Tuesday after Zone Leader Council. We headed out to Gillette and the Weather was great. Then we hit Wright and the Weather turned like CRAZY! We drove through a BLIZZARD and a couple White Outs. Super crazy. But we drive a truck. So we got through really well. We took it careful and took it about 30 mph most of the way to Casper. So, it was really good. Really Nice. As soon as we got to Edgerton, Wyoming. Little town of about 160 people the weather cleaned up and it was safe travels the next 40 miles to Casper. When you come into casper you can see Casper Mountain and the City Lights for like 30 Miles. Its so gorgeous. I love it their. When we tour the mission it will be summer so it will be awesome. But holy buckets i love it here. We just got back from a place called Story Book Island. Its an amusement park with a bunch of characters and all for the kids to play on and its free. its super cool. I loved it. It was right before I got their. All the missionaries helped and the stake helped. It was awesome. So tonight was a special premiere for the church only. So we had all of our investigators come. Super awesome. Siobahn- She is sooooooo close to being baptized she is doing everything with the church i.e. womens group lunch, appointments, just doing awesome her fellowship family the ostlers such an awesome group of people just super solid! They just moved here three months ago from Italy. Brother Ostler is a physical therapist in the Air Force. So he is out at Ellsworth Air Force Base. But she is doing super well. She loves the church we have invited Siobahn a couple times to be baptized and she has a problem with Priesthood Authority. But I think she just is a little nervous. She will be baptized!!! Kassi Blue- Super cool girl. She is scared to come to church but promised us that she will come to church and sunday and we will be having a party at a members house for her basically. So we have a couple girls her age coming she is twenty so we have them coming over and its going to be a party!! Ron and Wendy Beaumont- Super cool. Wendy is a hair stylist so she is going to cut me and papes hair on monday. I am going to have her do my eyebrows too. But their daughter lives in queen creek and I am going to get her number and address so, my sister whitney can hunt her down and be best friends and so that we can do a team effort in this battle!! :) I stinkin love Rapid City. I enjoy being an assitant too. Yeah, we are constantly busy and going crazy. But I enjoy it. It has been wonderful to be with President and Sister Layton. On monday we pick up Sister Layton and a couple of their kids and families at the airport in the Transfer Van. So Awesome! Super Fun! To be honest we dont get to do much teaching but the teaching that we do is the most effective and the right people. Also, on June 16 is Thomas Brouers (Recent Convert) & Tina Holloways Wedding they want me back for that. But it will be super fun. I love all the people here in Rapid City. They are awesome!! :) I seriously want a list of all my nieces and nephews. I seriously have no clue who is who! :) I see little ones like cayden and my heart just breaks. I miss all of them so much! Cant wait to meet these new ones! Super fun. I would love to see shannon and her sisters perform. Thats so cool. Tell them good luck. On Thanksgiving we have three dinner appointments. We will be up at the mission home at 1 and then 3 at Thomas & Tina's and then 6 at the Jensens. It will be a party. So much food. I have lost weight since I have gotten here. Super Cool! I will gain weight on thanksgiving for sure :) Thank you for all you do. I love you so much Jesus is the Christ! He is my Redeemer! He lives! I love you! Love,Elder Michael Corey RuddAssistant to the PresidentSouth Dakota Rapid City Mission

Pictures 11.14.11

Elder Rudd and Elder Pape

Assistants to the President

Our desks

Email 11.7.11

CHELLO!

Holy buckets! Super Long week. We have been super tired the last couple days. I had three blood vessels break in my eyes. I have been super tired! We took off to Fargo, ND and had a good time. But it was super long and super tiring. I love the missionaries and am so grateful that we can serve them in this calling.

Me and Elder Pape have been doing really well the lord has blessed us so much and I am so grateful for him and all he does. I love that man and he has such a wonderful conversion story and an awesome testimony. We work so well together. The lord is defnitely blessing our efforts and President Layton is very happy with the team. :)

We are in constant communication every day with President Layton and we plan and work with him 24/7. What a great man and I am so thankful for all that he does. He and Sister Layton work so hard. Sometimes President has to fly to Fargo or certain places of the mission because of the size of the mission. He and Sister Layton had been gone for two weeks and just got back they do that basically every month. We are so grateful for their love and support and their guidance.

So mom, I just found out some news about my return date mom. So, really weird I dont know for sure but, I was looking on the computer and saw my return date as May 3, 2012. Its a thursday. Dont know if that is doctrine or not. But if its in this program its probably correct. But, it really got me scared. Its very very weird. I go home by myself. Its really really weird. I do not like it at all! But there ya go. You have me home for mothers day. :) So, Christmas will be our last talk. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I honestly would love a print out of all my neices and nephews and there ages and whose kid they are. I have NO CLUE ANYMORE. But if you could that would be awesome. :)

I can not believe that Elder Romney comes home so soon! So crazy!

I did meet a sister mccormick. I will personally greet every new missionary as soon as they land in Rapid. So that will be fun. Speaking of that we have an Elder coming her from Mesa who was serving in Russia and cant learn the language so they are moving him here so he will be in Rapid at 10:30 tomorrow night so me and Elder Pape and probably going to fall asleep on the chairs out there. But we are excited for a new elder. Sister McCormick has the best trainer in the world. Sister Hunt is awesome. Member all that struggle we had with them when i was ZL in gillette. Now they are teaching 25 lessons a week and doing amazing work.

Tell Cayden that I am going to wrestle him for my room. And I dont lose. :) I cant wait to play with my buddy. me and Elder Pape got our headbands with the feathers on them. We are wearing them around the office. Lots of fun. I really enjoy the office crew. We work super hard.

Gues what! We have someone on date! Denise Rafnson Oh yeah! December 3rd!! So awesome! Also the lord blessed us with 8 @ church on sunday!

- Siobahn

-Trenton (7)

- Briana (9)

- Ron & Wendy Beaumont

- Connor

- Denise Rafnson (December 3rd)

- Cheny Wahlin

- Jenny (members gf)

I am so thankful for all that the lord blesses us to do in this labor to serve him. President Layton taught me a great lesson this week. I want all of you to focus on your testimony right now. Think of where the basis of your testimony is. Is it centered on Jesus Christ? The basis of our testimony has to be centered on Jesus Christ. Way Way too often our testimony is a testimony of appendages. The book of mormon, the restoration, temples everything is because of our savior Jesus Christ. So when we bare our testimony we need to testify of the divinity of the savior jesus christ.

I love you al!!

Keep those letters coming! I love them! Please!

Love,

Elder Michael Corey Rudd

Assistant to the President

South Dakota Rapid City Mission

Email 10.31.11

Mi Familia,

Elder Rudd here. It is so weird the adjustment being assistant now. There is alot more that we have to do.

Schedule:

6:30- Wake Up
7:30- In the office.
Doing everything President wants us to do. Graphs, Numbers, Talking with Missionaries. Zone Leaders and everything.

5:00- Try to get out and work by 5 usually not til dinner.

Dinner and jam packed nights of appointments. We deal with alot of issues with missionaries. Disobedient ones, Missionaries who want to go home. So we deal with alot of issues in that way.

But every week we are on the road too. Basically we are on the Road or in the Office. Tomorrow we take off for Fargo, ND (10 Hour drive if you wanted to know.) :) Good ole SDRCM. I love this mission.

Elder Pape is quite possibly my favorite companion we have so much fun together. He is such an awesome missionary. He is from Meridian, Idaho right next to Boise. He is the only member of his family. He is a convert of two years. Such an awesome guy. We get along so well. His Mom and Dad are starting to take the lessons too. But they have such a testimony of missions. Elder Pape really believes they will get baptized. It will happen.

He wants to go to Embry Riddle Arenautical University is Prescott too. Way cool. He goes home in January.

We are teaching quite a few people right now.

Kassi Blue- 20 years old. On the brink of baptism!!!

Siobahn Gilleland- Most powerful lesson ever. She felt the spirit so strong she will totally be baptized!! She has two kids too that will be baptized!!

Cheaney Wahlin- Part member family.She is totally nervous ablout baptism because her husband is a total scripture guru. But she will be baptized too.

But there is alot of good things happening in the Rapid City ward.

So the Halloween Party on Saturay for the ward. WAY AWESOME! We totally partied! We had the best Idea ever. We had a Trunk-or-Treat. It was awesome. We decided to flip a bike upside and use the wheels to be like a wheel of fortune thing and took supplies from the mission office like old dvds and pass along cards, pictures and all it was so cool and just a blast. Me and Elder Pape were just screaming and trying to promote it and we totally won best Trunk. Oh Yeah! :) Way fun.

No I do not get more money.

Last night totally took a toll on me. Sunday nights are stinking crazy. Like No Joke! I had to put every number in for the whole mission. Like every area. Every number. All 17 numbers for every area. All 58 areas!!!!! Then I had to save each of the 6 zones numbers in either a PDF file or a regular exel file and send them to Elder Payne of the 70. Every Stake President. and so much more. Then we have to make a report for President Layton too. It took me from 4 pm to 11pm. HOLY BUCKETS!!! I was SO tired. But I did it all. :) So thats every sunday night for me. Elder Pape does something completely different. But, I have like a holy bucket load!

I love Rapid City though holy buckets its awesome! I love being in a big town. I love Rapid City.

I love you all so very much!

BE STRONG BELIEVE!!!

Sorry it took me so long today. I think that there will be alot of that. But know that I love you and will do everything I possibly can.

Love,

Elder Michael Corey Rudd

Assistant to the President

South Dakota Rapid City Mission